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[1709-1742 immediate predecessors had done, to painters of portraiture and of allegory: the one probably because they could understand and enjoy it, the other because it was the mode. The king we need not doubt took more genuine delight in superintending the laying out of the grounds of Hampton Court in the Dutch taste than in examining pictures, but he caused a gallery to be erected in his favourite palace for the reception of the marvellous cartoons of Raffaelle, whilst he decorated the walls of the other apartments of that pleasant residence with Dutch fruit and flower pieces and scenes of Dutch life. But if William contributed little to the advancement of the Arts, his immediate successors contributed even less: and Art such as it was in England in the period under notice may be said to have been kept alive rather in defiance than by favour of that royal countenance which on the Continent was regarded as the very breath of its nostrils.

Science in its objective development had at this time reached a higher point than it had ever before attained in England; and the one branch of Art in which England excelled was, as might have been anticipated, that which is dependent upon Science for its very existence. But it was the genius of one extraordinary man, called out by the greatness of the occasion, which re-created English Architecture, and made it the sublime thing it became in his hands. Between Inigo Jones and Wren there was no architect worthy to be so called in England. And indeed Wren was the first Englishman who for centuries could put in a claim that could not be gainsayed to the title of architect, as, later, Hogarth was the first to prove that an Englishman might become a great painter. These two men are in fact the connecting links of the art of this period, with that of the preceding and of the following periods: and they mainly save this period of English Art-history from being strictly a history of Art in England, and not also of English Art.

Wren was already a man of mature age, ripe intellect, and of scientific acquirements, unusual in extent and variety even in that age of remarkable scientific men, when he turned to the study of architecture: and it may be that it was owing to this, that in his hands architecture became a living reality and not a thing of rule and system. The son of dean Wren, and the nephew of the well-known bishop of that name, he received every advantage of education, and every opportunity which social position and family influence could afford. Yet it is little short of marvellous to read of him when a mere boy, as not only skilled in mathematics, but the inventor of various astronomical, gnomonic, and pneumatic instruments; as being looked upon as a prodigy at Oxford, where he had entered as a commoner when only fourteen; as having secured a European celebrity at two-andtwenty; as being the next year appointed Gresham professor, and two or three years later called to the Savilian chair in his own university. At what time he commenced the study of architecture is not known.* From his having been appointed Assistant Surveyor-General in 1661, it has been conjectured that his architectural talents must have been recognised then. But this is by no means certain. The Surveyor-General was Sir John Denham the poet, and a knowledge of architecture was certainly no part of his qualification for the office. Wren was made his assistant with a view to

* See Stephen Wren's "Parentalia ;" and the "Life of Wren," by Elmes.

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becoming his successor. The situation may have been obtained as a motive and a means for retaining in London the brilliant young man of science who was found to be equally ready at drawing up, for the royal signature, the preamble of the newly founded Royal Society; organizing the new institution, and preparing papers and projects, constructing machines, and devising experiments which would give éclat to its meetings: and if such a thing were suggested to the king, who took very unusual interest in the prosperity of the infant society, there can be little doubt that he would willingly give Wren the place without inquiring very strictly into his special fitness for it. Be that as it may, the place was in his hands no sinecure. His first important undertaking in connection with it was the restoration of the old church of St. Paul's, which had been left in a ruinous condition since its desecration by Cromwell's soldiers. It had already lost its Gothic character by the erection of Inigo Jones's great Corinthian portico at the west end; and Wren would have entirely remodelled it by constructing a grand central cupola which he thought would be "of present use for auditory, make all the external repairs perfect, become an ornament to his majesty's most excellent reign, to the Church, and to this great city." But he was not to construct his grand central dome yet. At the outset, as at every future step of his architectural career, he had to encounter stubborn prejudice and stupidity. "You will not forget," said the excellent Evelyn many years later, "the struggle we had with some who were for patching it up anyhow, so the steeple might stand instead of new building; when, to put an end to the contest, five days after, that dreadful conflagration happened, out of whose ashes this phoenix is, and was by Providence designed for you.'

Before the conflagration, Wren had happily prepared himself for the mighty labour of repairing its ravages. He had satisfied himself as to the principles of architecture, and familiarised himself as far as possible with the practice. One of the most valuable glimpses we have into his mode of study is in a letter written by him in 1665 from Paris, whither he had gone to examine the vast works at the Louvre, then in course of erection. "The Louvre he says "for a while was my daily object, where no less than a thousand hands are constantly employed in the works; some laying mighty foundations; some in raising the stones, columns, entablements with vast stones, by great and useful engines; others in carving, inlaying of marbles, plastering, painting, gilding; which altogether make it a school of architecture the best probably in Europe."+ And he, we may say, was certainly the best scholar in it. He would have given his skin, he writes, for Bernini's plan of the Louvre," but the old reserved Italian gave me but a few minutes' view of it. . . . . I had only time to copy it in my fancy and memory." But other plans and buildings he is able to copy as well as to survey, so that he "I shall bring you almost all France upon paper." says, He might perhaps have done better, as Walpole said, and as has often been said after him, if he had gone on to Italy instead of remaining in France. French "filgrand works and little knacks as he calls them, did somewhat pertinaciously

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[1709-1742. cleave to his memory and corrupt the purity of his taste: but he left France with a conviction which he emphatically expressed, and which he never after suffered to escape from him, that Architecture ought not be swayed like language and dresses by new fashions; but that "building certainly ought to have the attribute of eternal"-an attribute which his buildings certainly possess.

The Fire of London was what gave him his grand opportunity, and imparted the strongest and most permanent impulse to his genius. How he was prepared to grapple with the mighty task of reconstructing a great city and how his purpose was foiled, has already been sufficiently told. That he was fully alive to the necessity for great lines of thoroughfare, the value of large central openings, and ready access by broad cross-streets between every part of the city, and of spacious quays along the Thames; and that he could contrive a comprehensive scheme, which, while it would meet the actual requirements of the city, was sufficiently flexible to adapt itself to an ever increasing commerce, his plan is abundant proof.* He would have concentrated the great commercial buildings, such as the Royal Exchange, the Post Office, Excise Office, &c., together in the heart of the city, with the main streets radiating from them; have placed St. Paul's at the division of two main-trunk streets, and nearly where it now stands, so that its lofty dome might form the crown of the capital from whatever side it was approached, but then he would have left a large vacant space before its western front, that its grand proportions might have made themselves fully seen on entering the city from the court end of town, and have built Doctors' Commons behind it, so as to prevent its being encroached on by mean houses; the churches he proposed to erect in conspicuous spots and at nearly equal distances; his main streets were to have been ninety feet wide, and none of the inferior streets less than thirty, while three spacious piazzas would have imparted an air of dignity and finish to their general aspect. That the importance of giving to the city a nobler architectural character had long before impressed itself on his mind, was shown in his report on the state of old St. Paul's, where he speaks of "this great city" as the "most unadorned of her bigness in the world."

The first stone of his masterwork, St. Paul's, was not laid till seven years after the Fire. At first the authorities were anxious to make the old church last a little longer, but that was decided by its falling about their ears. Then the design he prepared for the new edifice was not approved-the great opponent to it being, as is understood, the duke of York, afterwards James II. Wren had designed a Protestant Cathedral. The duke was bent on having one in which the ceremonies of the Romish Church might be performed with unstinted splendour.† Wren was obliged to give way; but his first design was that which he always regarded as the best. The large model which he prepared of it may be seen in the South Kensington Museum. The building would have been surmounted like the present one with a lofty dome. But in the earlier design the architect proposed to assemble the congregation on

* See the plan, and his statement of his intentions, ante, vol. iv. pp. 289-90. +"Spence's Anecdotes," p. 256, ed. Singer.

We have given in the opposite page Wren's first plan of St. Paul's, which may be compared with the plan of the actual building at page 201 of the present volume.

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ordinary occasions in the grand central area under the dome, as has in the present pile been only done in the recent exceptional evening services. There can be little doubt that the first design would have given a simpler, grander, and more original interior. It may be doubted whether the exterior would have been so impressive. The dome, noble as it would have been, was less majestic, and there were no features corresponding to the beautiful western campanile towers, or that would have compensated for their absence. Wren would have preferred his original design, but he did his best to make that on

the plan he was forced to adopt the worthiest he possibly could. And, despite all the objections that minute criticism has urged against it, he succeeded in erecting one of the very noblest piles which man has raised for the glory of his Maker.

The work which he commenced in 1675 he steadily prosecuted in the face of opposition and contumely for five-and-thirty years, when, in 1710, he had the happiness to see the last stone laid by his eldest son Christopher: a rare happiness for the architect of so great a work, and one that has secured to London the almost unparalleled fortune of having a cathedral of the grandest class, in which perfect unity of design is maintained throughout, as it only could have been by the architect superintending the work from its commencement to its completion, and as is not always secured even then.

By common consent St. Paul's is placed in the very first rank of the architectural works of modern times. Classic purists and mediæval eccle

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siologists alike take exception to its style and details. We may at once admit that its ornamentation is not unexceptionable; that objections may fairly be taken to its style. But making the largest admissions, we cannot but feel that it remains, in grandeur of mass and picturesqeness of outline, alone almost among works of its class: a stately, imposing, seen under some circumstances of position and season even a sublime temple. Many of the faults which are pointed out in the design there can be no doubt Wren was as cognisant of as his critics; many others that are commonly felt there can be little doubt were forced on him against his earnest protests. Of the plan we have spoken. One of the objections most commonly urged against the design is the coupling of the columns in the west front, and the raising of one order over another. But, as is shown in the Parentalia, Wren had at least well considered the matter. He thought a lofty front necessary to give dignity to the building; but stones of a size equal to those of the ancient porticoes being unattainable, he considered that a single order of some ninety feet would have presented an appearance of instability, and that the necessary appearance of strength for a double order could only be obtained by coupling columns of a less diameter; while this would have the advantage, by giving wider openings, of rendering obvious the entrances, a thing not required in an ancient temple. He may have been wrong, but he has at least the merit of erring as the consequence of carefully thinking out his problem,-which is better than being correct by the simple rule of copying. So on the other hand, the balustrade and the vases at the sides, which more than anything else serve to take off from the true magnitude of the pile, were only adopted by him on compulsion; his letter to the commissioners being extant* in which he denounces their resolution to set up a balustrade in the strongest terms, as one that could only have been made by persons ignorant of the principles of architecture. "Statues erected on the four pediments only, will," he says, "be a most proper, noble, and sufficient ornament to the whole fabric;" though he knows that "ladies think nothing well without an edging." This letter, it is noteworthy, was written in 1717, after the building was virtually finished. The "ladies," however, had their way, and the edging was tacked on. The cold naked look of the interior is an objection raised by every visitor; but it ought to be remembered that Wren designed the interior to be adorned with mosaics, and was in treaty with professors of the art in Italy for their execution. The authorities however disallowed them, and had in their place the inside of the dome covered with paintings by Sir James Thornhill-worthless in themselves, and the painted imitations of columns, vases, and other architectural features between which, have the further effect of seriously interfering with the curves of the noble vault, and marring its simple majesty.

Next in artistic importance to St. Paul's, rank the churches with which Wren adorned the city. These, instead of placing in the most prominent positions, he was compelled to put often in the most out-of-the-way streets and lanes, where the buildings themselves were in many instances concealed by shops and warehouses. Hence he directed his chief attention to the interiors and the spires. And here he showed himself to be a great original

*Elmes' "Life of Wren."